July 23, 2017 - Salvation

Tony & Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord

Romans 6:23

As Christians, we use words like SALVATION, REDEEMED, FORGIVEN, and other words that can be hard to understand.  Have you ever found yourself wondering what these words meant?  Me too.  So, today we’re going to talk about them.

Heaven us a perfect place and to stay perfect, only perfect things can be there, right? Good thing God made us perfect.  Here’s the problem; since Adam and Eve let sin into the world, we all have the ability to sin.  The Bible says that everyone has sinned and is no longer good enough to get into Heaven.  This is so sad because the wages (wages are what you earn for doing something) is DEATH!      

However, God had a plan for this.  The Bible tells us that God loved us so much that He gave His only Son Jesus to pay for our sins so we can be perfect again.  All we have to do is believe that Jesus is the Son of God (and also God Himself), and that God raised Him from the dead.  Even though the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal (lasts forever) life through Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins.(ref. John 3:16 & Romans 10:9)

But how does that work?  How does Jesus dying on the cross help us?  The Bible tells us that when we first sinned we became slaves to sin(ref. Romans 6:20 & John 8:34).  That means that sin OWNED US!  The only way to pay for our sins was with our eternal lives.  That means we’d be paying for our sins in a place called Hell forever. When Jesus died on the cross, He used His death to pay for our sins because He had no sins of His own (ref. 2nd Corinthians 5:21).  He would have been dead forever but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and conquered death.  Now we don’t have to die.

By doing this, Jesus REDEEMED us (ref. I Peter 1:18-19).  What does redeemed mean?  It means to buy something back.  Jesus’s death bought us back from sin and now we belong to God.  That means we get to live our eternal lives with God forever! HOW AWESOME! 

Jesus didn’t wait until He thought we were good enough. 

We could never be good enough to earn what Jesus gave us freely.  The Bible says that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners! (ref. Romans 5:8)  That is an incredible kind of love, don’t you think?  Now we have a choice to accept Jesus’s free gift of being saved from paying for our own sins in Hell or rejecting it and paying for them ourselves.  

Why can’t we just erase our own sin with good works?    Think of yourself as a perfect piece of dough.  When you sin it’s like you get some dirt in the dough and it becomes part of the dough.  The dough is no longer perfect and you cannot separate the dough from the dirt.  What do you do?  You decide to try to make up for the dirt buy adding in chocolate chips and sprinkles (good works) to the dough.  This looks better but it doesn’t get rid of the dirt. It is always there.  Too bad we can’t go back in time and stop ourselves from getting dirty.

So what do we do?  The Bible says that when we accept Jesus’s gift of SALVATION (Being saved from paying for our

sins) we put on Jesus like clothes.  Our good deeds are like dirty rags compared to Jesus so He lets us wear His RIGHTEOUSNESS (all the good things that we do and say and are)(ref. Galatians 3:27). Now when we leave this world and stand in front of God, He doesn’t see our sins.  He only sees the righteousness of Jesus.  All of our sins are paid for and forgotten forever! 

So now is the time for your choice.  If you choose to accept

Jesus’s free gift, then remember what the Bible says: because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 

If you ask Jesus to save you He will not say no.  In fact, the Bible says: For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  Romans 10:13

Let’s all choose Jesus so we can belong to Him.  Then we

can live our lives for Him and all the good things we do can be to show Him how much we love Him.  Jesus is waiting to hear from you.

July 16, 2017 - Body of Christ

Tony & Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 

I Corinthians 12:27

What is the most important part of your body?  Is it your brain? Your heart? Your hands?  What parts would you be willing to do without? Your feet?  Your ears?  What if your feet thought they weren't really a part of your body because they weren't the hand?  How about if your ear thought it wasn't really part of your body because it wasn't your eye?  Sounds pretty silly, doesn't it?  That's because it is.  But we, as a church, do this very thing all the time! Let me explain.

During his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul came

to a town called Corinth.  Paul, as he always did, tried to preach to the local Jews in the Synagogue about Jesus Christ.  However, he and his message were soundly rejected.  Paul then decided to preach to the Gentiles (non-Jews) instead.  There, Paul met with success.  He, along with his friends Silas and

Timothy, were able to recruit and teach many new believers and set up a church in Corinth.  

After a year and a half, Paul saw that it was time for him to leave and he continued on his journey.  Unfortunately, things did not go exactly according to plan in Corinth. The people of the church began arguing among themselves over who was more important in the church.  They thought that certain

gifts, jobs, and positions were more important than others.  Word of this reached Paul and he decided to sit down and write them a letter.  We know this letter as 1st Corinthians. 

Paul began explaining to the people there that the church was the body of Christ and Jesus Himself was the head.  (He also wrote a similar letter to the Romans.)  Not only that, but each person was like a

different body part doing a different but equally important job.  He explained to them that the body needs all its parts to do the complete job it was meant to do.  

Today, we still make the same mistake.  We think to ourselves that only certain people are important to the Kingdom of Heaven and the rest aren't. People think, "Because I'm not a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, a missionary, etc..., I'm not very important." Others think things such as, "because I AM a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, a missionary, etc..., I am much more important to the Kingdom of Heaven than the others."  

We, as the body of Christ, need to pull together if we ever

want to win this world for Jesus Christ.  God has a unique and important job for each of you and He has given you a special ability and desire to do that job.  We need to seek God and discover what our job and our giftings are.  Then we need to work together with, strengthen, and encourage each other.  You would never get much done if all your body parts were working against each other now would you? 

July 9, 2017 - Paul at Berea

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another; 

(Hebrews 10:25)

Have you ever been taught something that you later found out wasn’t true?  It happens all the time; even in CHURCH!  Sometimes it is just a mistake on the part of the teacher but sometimes someone is trying to trick you on purpose.  Satan himself is called the “Deceiver” and always wants you to believe things that aren’t true.  That is one reason that God gave us the Bible, so we could always check to see if something we’ve been taught is true or not.

This week, we are talking about the

Apostle Paul during his second missionary journey.  The first thing Paul would do when he came to a city was look to see if they had a Synagogue there.  If they did, he would go there and teach the people about Jesus.  Now, a Synagogue is sort of like what we call a church.  It was where Jewish people would go to worship and learn about God when they weren’t near the Temple in Jerusalem. 

That was just what happened in Thessalonica.  Paul went to the Synagogue and started to teach the people.  The Jews

had been hearing for many years about a Messiah or Christ that God would send to become king and save them all.  Paul began to teach them that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for.  He also told them the Scriptures had taught that the Messiah would have to suffer and die for the people.

The Thessalonians were not easy people to teach.  Paul had to teach them three times before some of them finally began to believe.   However, some of the people didn’t like what Paul was teaching about a king.  They went to the City Council and complained.  The council did not like what Paul was teaching either so they went looking for Paul. 

All they found was Jason, the man that Paul and his partner Silas were staying with.  They told Jason that he had to make Paul leave Thessalonica immediately.  So the next day, Paul left.

Next, he and Silas came to a city called Berea.   Just like before, Paul went to teach at the Synagogue.  This time, the people were eager to learn about God.  Also, each time

they heard Paul preach, the Bereans went and checked with the Scriptures to see if what he was saying about Jesus was true or not.  When they saw that it was true, they went back to hear more.  The Bible says that the Bereans were more noble because of this.

Unfortunately, the same troublemakers from Thessalonica followed Paul and Silas to Berea and started causing trouble

there too!  So, once again, Paul had to leave town but this time there were many people who believed in Jesus because they read and believed their Scriptures.

Even today, we still need to read our Bibles and know them well.  You never know when the devil will try to use a false teacher to trick us and we need to be prepared.  Always check with God’s Word before believing something you hear.  

July 2, 2017 - Parable of the Sower

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit…

Mark 4:20a

Have you ever heard of a parable?  A parable is a story used to teach a moral or spiritual lesson.  Jesus quite often used parables to teach his followers a lesson that they couldn't have understood without the story.  Today, we are going to talk about a parable Jesus told His

followers as they came to hear His teachings by the sea. There were so many people that Jesus had to get into a boat and push it out into the water a little bit so He would have room.  

Jesus began to tell them a parable about a sower (someone who scatters seeds).  As the sower went along, some of his scattered seed fell on the path. Before they could grow, the birds came down and ate it.

Some of the seeds landed on soil that had a lot of rocks.  The seeds grew quickly but, since there wasn't much soil because of the rocks, the plants didn't have many roots and they died.

Some seeds fell on soil that had plants with thorns.  These thorns grew up with the sower's plants and choked them.  So these seeds couldn't grow well either.

Finally, some of the seeds fell on good soil and grew up strong and healthy.  These plants produced much grain. With that, the parable ended.

Afterwards, Jesus' Apostles came to him and asked what the parable meant.  Jesus began to explain that the seeds being scattered by the sower were actually the Word of God.  The different kinds of soil were the hearts of the people that heard it.

The seeds that fell on the path were like the times when people would hear the Word of God but then Satan would come and steal it from their hearts before it could grow.  Satan tries to convince people who hear that it isn't actually true so they ignore it. 

The seeds that fell on the rocky ground were like people who hear the Word of God and happily accept it for a while. Then Satan attacks them with hard times or sends someone to treat them badly.   Being a Christian becomes too hard for them.  These people's hearts were too hard and the Word of God could not grow many roots so they gave up on God.

The seeds that fell in the thorns were like people who accept the Word of God at first, but then they decide that other things are more important.  Instead, they decide to love money or things more than God.  The Word of God can't grow in their hearts either because the their love for God was choked by their love for other things.

The seeds that fell on the good soil are like the people who hear the Word of God, accept it, and whose lives produce the fruit of the Word of God.  The Bible says that the Fruit of the Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.

We need to make sure that our hearts are good soil so

that the Word of God can grow inside of us.  Then we can bear fruit.  The fruit that we bear produces more seeds of the Word of God that we can spread to others.  Let us pray that the places we spread the seed is full of good soil.  

June 25, 2017 - Zacchaeus (puppet script)

    TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity 

than a rich man who is crooked in his ways. 

Proverbs 28:6

Zacchaeus Puppet Script

Teacher – And who do we have here? (Class turns around)

Zacchaeus – Hello everyone!

Teacher – And who are you?

Zacchaeus – My name is Zacchaeus. Have you ever heard of 
me?

 Class – Yes

Zacchaeus – Then you know that I was the biggest, toughest man in all of Jericho.

 Class – Noooooo

Zacchaeus – You don’t believe me? You’ve heard the song, haven’t you?

Class – Yes (Starts singing Zacchaeus song)

 Zacchaeus – NO, NO, NO, STOP!  I don’t like that song.

Teacher – Why don’t you like that song, Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus – It calls me a wee little man.  A wee little man!  It’s enough to hurt a guy’s feelings.

Teacher – We’re sorry we hurt your feelings, Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus – You don’t know how hard it is always being the short guy.  You get bullied, picked on, and you can never reach the stuff on the top shelf!  You also can’t do the tough jobs like most guy do so I had to take a different kind of job.

Teacher – What kind of Job do you have?

Zacchaeus – (Shamefully)  I’m a tax collector.

Teacher – What’s a tax collector?

Zacchaeus – Well, in my day, the Romans were in charge of all of Israel.  They made all the Jews in Israel pay money to Rome or Rome would get mad.  I worked for the Romans.  It was my job to go to my fellow Jews and collect all the money they owed to Rome.  The other Israelites said that since I worked for Rome, I was a traitor!  Nobody liked me. So, I figured since nobody liked me anyways, I would start to cheat the people. 

Teacher – What does it mean to cheat people?

Zacchaeus – Well, some people cheat others by using fake weights on a scale so they can charge them more.  Sometimes, I would just charge too many taxes, even if the people were poor.  Like, if Rome said they owed $5, I charged them $6 and kept the extra dollar myself.  I got very rich this way.

Teacher – Did the people know you cheated them?

Zacchaeus – Sometimes, but they couldn’t do anything about it.  If the people

refused to pay, I would send the Roman soldiers after them and make them pay.

Teacher – That’s awful!

Zacchaeus – I know but it worked really well until, one day, everything changed. I was out collecting taxes like 

       every other day, when I saw 
       a crowd start to gather in the streets.  I asked someone what was going on and he 
       said, “Jesus the Prophet is coming through Jericho today!” Now I had heard all about this Jesus fella.  Everybody had!  He went around teaching people things like to love each other, be kind to each other, and to treat everyone how you would want to be treated.  I had to admit, I wasn’t very good at any of that.

Teacher – So what happened next?

 

Zacchaeus – Well, I wanted to see this Jesus fella.  I wondered what a prophet looked like anyways.  So I tried to get through the people but no one would let me

through.  So I tried to crawl but all I could see was a bunch of ankles.  So I tried to jump but I couldn’t get high enough.  All I could see were the backs of people’s heads!  So I looked left.  Then I looked right.  And finally I saw the answer.  There was a sycamore fig tree right down the road with a branch perfect for sitting!  As you can see from the picture on the board, the trunk was low enough for a small guy like me to climb. 

(Teacher shows them the picture of the tree)

Teacher – Then what, Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus – So I quickly ran to the tree and climbed out on

the limb and sat down.  I could see all the way down the street from there!  Soon, I saw him.  Jesus was coming down the road with his disciples.  I heard they went everywhere with him. But then I saw something that almost made me fall off my branch!  I knew one of the Disciples!  He used to be a tax collector in Jerusalem!  His name was Matthew!  What in the world was a man like Jesus doing hanging out with a tax collector?  Did Jesus even know?

Teacher – I don’t know?  What did Jesus do then?

Zacchaeus – Well, he came down the street and was about to walk right past me when he suddenly stopped.  Then, for some

reason, he looked right up into my tree.  I didn’t know what was going on.  I thought maybe he saw a bird behind me or something.  But then he spoke.  He said, “Zacchaeus, come down here right away!  I am going to stay at your house today.”  My house???  I couldn’t believe it!  Jesus was going to stay at my house!  I was so excited that I climbed out of that tree as fast as I could and bowed down in front of him.  I said, “Of course, Rabbi (that means teacher).  You are very welcome at my house.”  

Teacher – What did the others think of Jesus going to your house?

Zacchaeus – They weren’t happy at all!  As I knelt there I could hear them talk.  They couldn’t believe that Jesus was

going to the house of such a filthy, stinking sinner!  I couldn’t blame them either.  I had treated them all so bad and unfairly that I didn’t deserve to have a man like Jesus come to my house.  Also, I knew Jesus had heard what they said and I was terribly embarrassed by how I had acted.  So, I decided right then and there that things were going to be different from now on!  I stood up and said, “Jesus, watch this.  Right now I am going to give half of all my money to the poor.  And anyone I have cheated, I am going to pay them back.  In fact, I am going to give them four times what I took from them!”  Jesus looked at me

and smiled.  Then He said so everyone could hear, “Today, salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house.  Just like all of you, he is an Israelite descended from Abraham and he needs Salvation like the rest of you.  That’s why God sent me.  I came to find the lost people and save them from their sin.”  I couldn’t believe it! Jesus had chosen to love even me; a short, filthy, stinking, cheating sinner!  I suppose if Jesus can love me for who I am, then the song about me isn’t so bad.  After all, not everyone has their own song.

                        (Everyone sings Zacchaeus is a Wee Little Man)